Lawyer Rewrites Instagram's Privacy Policy So Kids and Parents Can Have a Meaningful Talk About Privacy (qz.com)

Kids, of age between 12 and 15, are increasingly joining Facebook's Instagram service, but according to a research, they likely don't even understand what they are signing up for. Jenny Afia, a privacy law expert at Schillings, a UK-based law firm, rewrote Instagram's terms of service in child-friendly language, so that not only the kids but their parents are able to understand what things are at stake. Highlighted are the changes the lawyer has made: Officially you own any original pictures and videos you post, but we are allowed to use them, and we can let others use them as well, anywhere around the world. Other people might pay us to use them and we will not pay you for that. [...] We may keep, use and share your personal information with companies connected with Instagram. This information includes your name, email address, school, where you live, pictures, phone number, your likes and dislikes, where you go, who your friends are, how often you use Instagram, and any other personal information we find such as your birthday or who you are chatting with, including in private messages (DMs). [...] We might send you adverts connected to your interests which we are monitoring. You cannot stop us doing this and it will not always be obvious that it is an advert.

Comments

Re:Headline... Headache

[cayenne8]

I think we need to legislate that ALL legal TOS and the like be written in this type of CLEAR and concise and easily understandable verbiage.

There's no excuse for the common man to be held to agreements signed that no one but a lawyer can understand.

If the general public is to be held to these agreements, they must be required to be written in terms that at least a 15 year old can understand.

I know, I know, that's STILL above the heads of the average person by a long shot, but at least it is shooting at a reasonable level for public acceptance.

Re:Headline... Headache

[stranger_to_himself]

I think we need to legislate that ALL legal TOS and the like be written in this type of CLEAR and concise and easily understandable verbiage.

There's no excuse for the common man to be held to agreements signed that no one but a lawyer can understand.

If the general public is to be held to these agreements, they must be required to be written in terms that at least a 15 year old can understand.

I know, I know, that's STILL above the heads of the average person by a long shot, but at least it is shooting at a reasonable level for public acceptance.

It's already enforced in this way for consent to a medical procedure or in academic research. Consent is not considered valid unless the subject understands what they are agreeing to. The frustrating thing for academic researchers is that we have to abide by these standards whereas commercial firms can write garbage in legalese and then do what they like..

Re:I already simplify it for my kids

[gosand]

Kids do not understand why #1 is a bad thing.
You have to follow that up with real-world examples of why and how that could be a problem for them.

I told my daughter "imagine you sent a selfie to your best friend where you had your finger in your nose as a joke. Then what if she thought it was funny and shared it with other friends... then it made it all around your school and people started teasing you about picking your nose." Pretty mild example, but I think she got it. Basically I said once you send something, you have no control over what happens to it.

And just like everything else, they will only truly learn if they are allowed to make mistakes on their own.
I did shit all the time that my parents told me not to do, and I learned - both in good ways and in bad ways - from doing that.
Fortunately for me, there was no way to document those things back then like there are today. :)